Nintendo SNES Mini Cracked To Run More Games

It would seem that a company like Nintendo – like other gaming console manufacturers – would make it extremely hard for hackers to crack the console’s operating system and be able to unlock side-loading of additional games. On the contrary, it seems that could Nintendo has absolutely no problem with hackers tinkering with its retro consoles to use for more features than allowed.

If you remember correctly, the NES Classic Edition was cracked by a Russian geek named “Cluster” after just a few months of the console’s launch. As it turns out, the new Nintendo SNES Mini is no uncrackable console either. So much so, that it only took less than two weeks for the same hacker to crack the new retro console.

For a first-timer like you and me, it will take us some time to get the pointers straight. But apparently, just about any guide on YouTube can help us crack the console using the ‘hakchi2’ tool developed by Cluster to crack Nintendo’s retro consoles. According to the tool’s release notes, not only can you get any SNES games running on the console, but you can also run older NES titles on the new SNES Mini Console’s emulator. This gives countless NES games to choose from.

Bear in mind that having games on your SNES hard drive without its originally-bought disk is illegal. For those who don’t know this yet, being capable of running older games on the SNES and SNES Mini is especially valuable right now because Nintendo SNES arrives with 21 pre-installed games in its memory and the SNES Mini arrives with 30 such games.

The bummer is that there is currently no legitimate way of buying a new title. This could also be the reason why Nintendo – a company is known to be relentless in copyrights infringement cases – has turned a blind eye to these tinkerers’ attempts of accessing what is not made accessible to them. The funny part is that Nintendo even hid a message for these hackers in the NES Classic Edition and SNES Mini’s source code.